the world. experience outstanding shopping and dining office and try our services. be our guest at frankfurt airport city managed by for. this is the line from berlin tonight the biggest victory in the war against a so-called islamic state the city claimed as its capital rocket has fallen the announcement came today after a four month campaign to retake rockabye u.s.

backed forces a city left in ruins and riddled with mines and booby traps but how damaged is isis after this long is also coming up civilians return to the syrian city of kirkuk a day after iraqi forces drive kurdish forces out and fresh protests erupt in the kettle on capitol barcelona the regional government there is refusing to drop its bid for independence from spain. i bring coffee it's good to have you with us tonight residents in the city of rocca are bringing to a close their first day free from so-called islamic state the syrian the city was the capital of the islamist groups suppose it caliph it u.s. backed forces took control of almost all of the city today troops fighting say they have captured one of the militants last holdouts the city's hospital but there are

still pockets of resistance in the city one of them is reported to be a stadium complex in rock which was used by all us as a prison and arms dump as you see right there and dozens of fighters have made their last stand there once the sea. islamic state's power the long fight for iraq has left this city in ruins. a five month battle is over for the syrian kurdish and arab fighters backed by the united states they killed dozens of i asked militants in their final push rocka is now a shell of a city. there's nothing left where near the end we haven't seen any i asked militants we haven't seen any of them near the stadium either i think the city will be fully clear of them in the next two days which once all of the i asked militants are gone from syria i'll go home. i asked took control of

rocca in early twenty fourteen and made it the capital of its self-styled caliph that. the militants imposed a strict interpretation of islamic law and used extreme means such as beheadings and torture to quash those who oppose the rule it became home to thousands of jihadists from across the globe after a call by us leader baghdadi to migrate to the syrian city however in recent months the so-called islamic state has steadily lost territory in syria and iraq. the fall of raka is a major blow to the militant group but the extremists still controlled territory in neighboring regions on the iraqi side of the border. a long road lies ahead to heal wounds and rebuild the ruined city of rocca the spite these fighters celebrations. and how long will those celebrations last for more now we want to cross over to

journalist of vladimir from the building block he joins us from kabbani in northern syria good evening to you so we've got the liberation of iraq today does that mean that the back of islamic state has finally been broken. yes of course because rock out was the capital vices in syria i've talked to an isis wives that are now dissatisfied advice in this that if god was with isis they would have had given them victory but now isis is sort of defeated aka of course there are still some isis pockets left and there is or the fight is largely over in northern syria so the fight is over but the people remain particularly the residents in iraq and around the city how much support from area residents is still there for isis do we know law i don't think there are many people that supported isis in iraq ah there were people that for their salaries because

there are not many jobs that join isis general the support was very low and now that isis is defeated especially nobody supported like at least not many people because it was the foreign fighters actually in isis that were fighting them on another syrian isis fighters and now that the city is fall in the military campaign is over what has to be done politically. some symbol of civility to the city. the u.s. u.s. coalition u.s. aid there are conservation council they're working on a plan for the construction of rocca that divided in eight eight there is to explore reconstruction but the problem is the money mines so first asked to be a mining clearing all the rubble and then they're going to start on working repairing to a communications not where the water the electricity. but i don't think a whole city be easily be constructed because the damage is too large but at least

the wall there dr steve will be back soon and what are you hearing let amir in terms of where the fight against isis goes from here what's the next objective the next city for example is that anti us forces will be targeting. well there's a very. strategic city of. iraqi border so the syrian regime wants to go there and that by america wants to go there as a sort of race competition between both sides. so they're still fighting and there's more problems against isis by the regime and by. all right journalist vladimir borg joining us tonight from northern syria talking about the fall of the isis capital rocka wedeman thank you very much well now to syria's neighbor iraq where government forces say they have taken control of all major oil fields in the

disputed north of the country and this follows fast on the heels of their capture of the kurdish held city of kirkuk. a triumph for government forces and their supporters iraqi flags have now been placed kurdish bonus and decision. in just a day's time iraqi troops have pushed out the kurdish fighters known as peshmerga from kirkuk an oil rich city claimed both by the iraqi central government and the kurds. many who fled have started to return. we're coming back because everybody escaped yesterday everybody left care cook but now the situation has stabilized and everyone's going back to their home nothing's happening here thank god nothing will happen god willing i'm kirk will be back to how it was. the advance came three weeks after

residents in a cut is time region and also in kirkuk voted overwhelmingly in favor of independence in a referendum back to illegitimate iraq's president who's a cut himself says monday's operation was white. the independence referendum of the kurdistan region from iraq provoked dangerous disputes between the federal government and the regional government of kurdistan as well as within the kurdish government itself this led to the redeployment of the federal security forces to directly supervise kirkuk. the military action has made residents in erbil the capital of the kurdish autonomous region angry. it looks like there was an international betrayal of the kurds and that's because we had a plan to move towards independence. now our borders are back to the way they were

in twenty fourteen we're satisfied with our and if they remain stable we don't wish for war we hope that we can maintain our relationship with iraq. as the iraqi forces have advanced kurdish forces have retreated they've also withdrawn from other disputed areas in northern and eastern iraq. well here is some of the other stories that are making headlines around the world u.s. president double trump's third travel ban attempt was blocked by a federal judge in hawaii just hours before it was set to go into effect the judge said the trumps order discriminated based on nationality and failed to show that people coming from the listed countries would be detrimental to u.s. interests. televen militants in afghanistan carried out a suicide car bombing and gun tacked on a provincial police headquarters killing at least thirty three people it was part of a series of attacks against police across the country the left at least seventy eight people dead. or to spain now and catalonia has regional governments have said that

madrid is quote choosing repression over dialogue that after jailing two leaders of the quetta one separatist movement and a sedition probe thousands of protesters have been taking to the streets in barcelona tonight calling for their release the spanish government warned catalonia that it must revoke its declaration of independence or face direct rule from madrid earlier a kettle on government spokesman said that the autonomous region will stand by its decision but. are for now we want to go to los rambus in barcelona that's where our correspondent barbara vigil is following developments for us tonight good evening to you barbara so the arrest of these two separatist leaders it has really inflamed the situation there hasn't. really because it's been relatively quiet throughout the week and it was like a standoff situation every side was looking at the other and waiting what they

would be doing however after the high cards in madrid decided. to independence leader is. really an independent movement the spokesperson people are trying everything to release the fire they are now. that there will be more demonstrations in the days to come this is the first one it was entirely peaceful some ten thousand people behind it candles chanting liberty and free free the call these. two leaders that are now in jail however we will see the showdown on thursday when the decision will fall whether madrid will impose direct rule over cuts alone you are not yet and that is the big question and if you consider what we're seeing tonight knowing that this new deadline is basically what forty eight hours away i mean it looks like this crunch time the next two days it's already been decided to be would you agree with that is

the kettle on president is he going to back down. absolutely not what we see here is like two trains racing towards each other and it is going to end in a big political crash because both the regional government and of course. in madrid has done they have ducked themselves in they i cannot function they would definitely totally lose face if they don't turn around and say ok we didn't really mean anything bad you know let's sit down on talks the time for that is past i think this is not going to happen and we'll see the final showdown on thursday where this is the biggest political crisis that spain has seen in decades i think you have to go back to the early one nine hundred eighty s. to find something this severe you've been talking to a lot of people gauging public sentiment do you think this crisis has the potential of spilling over into civil unrest.

we don't know this so far as independence movement all of us stresses that we are completely peaceful we want negotiations we want independence and if on thursday after ten o'clock after the deadline runs out it's not true then sends in the state police if they maybe even send in troops and troops already in the harbor you also known then things could really get nasty very quickly because emotions are running high here and people feel that really something bad has been done to them they say you know spain is losing its democratic values since those two independence leaders are in jail and so nothing can be said at the moment that this will really stay clients or those who are funded barbara fazel joining us tonight in barcelona reporting on renewed volatility there between catalonia and the spanish government barbara thank you very much. art in football news no it was

a mixed night in the champions league for germany's representatives secured their first ever win in european football they beat porto three two to move up to second place in their group but it was not a good evening for dortmund they struggled to a disappointing one all droll away to apo well because nickel c.-a and they face an uphill struggle to qualify for the second round of the playoffs for the remaining four europeans fonts at next year's world cup and russia have been drawn in the standout tie italy is up against sweden the other times a secret take on greece and denmark faced the republic of ireland while their neighbors northern ireland must overcome switzerland the games will take place in the. here's a reminder of those top stories that we're following for you us back to syrian forces have retaken the islamic state stronghold of iraq and there have been celebrations in the iraqi city of kirkuk a day after kurdish forces left the city to advancing iraqi military. and probing

to finda supporters by the thousands in catalonia and rallied in support of two separate his two were jailed by the authorities in madrid. you're watching the news live from berlin more news at the top of the hour and see that. w.'s program guide to the highlights. the whole. dot com highlights.